Hard Drives & Storage : The CCL Guide

Storage Buying Guide

Running out of space on your computer?

It's actually very easy and relatively cheap to find more room for your photos, videos and other files.
Let's have a look at a few options available to you, and go through some of the basics of computer storage...

Basic Information

• All of your files (music, video, documents, spreadsheets... etc) are typically stored on your computers Hard Drive (Also known as Hard Disk, or Hard Disk Drive).
• Most computers can have multiple Hard Drives installed (so you don't necessarily need to replace your existing one).
• All modern computers can use external hard drives, which plug into your PC from the outside.
• Hard Drives designed for laptops are physically smaller in dimension than drives designed for desktop computers.
• Hard Drives are typically rated by capacity and speed.
• Hard Drives range in price. Lower-capacity drives typically start at £25. Higher-capacity models can approach £70. Higher-speed models are costlier still.
• Currently available capacities range from 40GB to 1000GB (1TB).

For reference, a single GB (Gigabyte) is roughly equivalent to 18 hours of MP3 music, or about 600 high-quality photos from a typical digital camera.

Drive Types

When choosing to upgrade your storage space, you have two main options:

• Buy an internal hard drive and have it fitted inside your machine (in place of, or in addition to any existing hard drives you may have).
• Buy an external hard drive and plug it into an available USB (or Firewire) socket on your machine.

An Internal Hard Drive	An External Hard Drive (Effectively the same as the hard drive on the left, but inside a protective enclosure)

Both options have benefits and drawbacks.

• An external hard drive makes more sense if you just want some room for your documents and files, or if you are unwilling to open your computer and install a new hard drive (or pay someone to do it for you).
• An internal hard drive is beneficial if you need more room for applications and programs, wish to upgrade to Windows Vista (which may require more drive space than you currently have), or don't have room on your desk to sit an external hard drive.

Internal Hard Drives

An internal hard drive is not easily fitted by inexperienced computer users. If you are at all unsure of what to do, it is recommended that you get a technician or experienced friend/relative to do this for you.

Internal hard drives may be categorised in two ways:

Physical Size (2.5", 3.5")

Drives suitable for laptop computers are physically smaller than those designed for desktop computers. Laptop drives are normally labelled as 2.5". Desktop drives are labelled as 3.5". Ensure you buy one that is suitable for your type of computer.

A 2.5" Laptop Hard Drive (Shown with its top cover removed)	A 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive (Also shown with its top cover removed)

Note: Retailers often show drives with their top covers removed for aesthetic purposes. The drive you buy will not have its cover removed in this fashion. Removal of the top cover of your drive will destroy it and all data stored on it.

Connector (SATA / PATA)

Drives also come with one of two types of connector. SATA (also Serial ATA) is newer and faster, and present on most new computers. PATA (also IDE or Parallel ATA) is older and slower, and present on older computers. If your computer does not have SATA, you will have to buy a PATA drive (or equip your computer with a SATA card). If your computer is relatively new, there is a strong possibility it will have both types of connector. In this case, SATA is preferred because of the performance increases it offers.

SATA Connector	PATA/IDE Connector

External Hard Drives

Unlike internal hard drives, external hard drives may be fitted with no technical knowledge.
Simply locate an empty USB (or Firewire) port, and plug the drive's cable into it. You may also need to power the drive by plugging it into a mains socket.

Once plugged in, the hard drive will appear in 'My Computer', just like the other hard drive(s) and CD/DVD drives on your computer. You can immediately begin saving files to it.

This is a fast, portable way of expanding your storage space. External hard drives may be unplugged and moved to another computer with ease, which also makes them suitable for moving your files between different computers.

Although it is not immediately obvious, external hard drives are usually just internal hard drives placed into an enclosure. The enclosure provides power, cooling, and an external connection to the computer.

These are slower than internal hard drives because the external USB or Firewire connection that the enclosures use is slower than the SATA or PATA connection that the hard drive uses. For the purposes of storing and retrieving files however, this is not generally a problem, as both USB and Firewire still offer very fast transfer speeds.

External hard drives are available various configurations

• There are two main sizes - Portable (based on 2.5" laptop hard drives), and Desktop (based on 3.5" desktop hard drives).
• There are also two main methods of connection available - USB and Firewire. Both offer similar transfer and access speeds.

A Portable (2.5") External Hard Drive	A Less-Portable (3.5") External Hard Drive
Cons - Lower maximum capacities - More costly by capacity Pros - Powered from your computer - Typically silent - Physically smaller and lighter - Could easily fit in a pocket	Cons - Requires a mains power supply - Larger and sometimes louder - Heavier Pros - Larger maximum capacities - Cheaper by capacity

External hard drives are generally more costly than their internal counterparts, as the cost of the enclosure must be accounted for. Some also include backup management software and hardware that is not typically included with internal hard drives.

A Firewire Connector

A USB 2.0 Connector (Looks identical to a USB 1.1 connector)

Firewire is a connection typically used for connecting video cameras to computers. It can however also be used with external hard drives. Although many laptops have firewire connectors, not all desktop computers will feature such a connection. There is little benefit to choosing a Firewire-based drive over a USB model, unless you are running out of available USB ports and would prefer to use an available Firewire port instead.

USB comes in two varieties - the older version 1.1, and the newer version 2.0 (also known as Hi-Speed). If your computer is fairly new, it will have the much faster 2.0 version, and you'll be able to use an external                                                                 hard drive at acceptable speeds. If your computer is quite old, it may have the far slower 1.1 version, which will not be fast enough to satisfactorily transfer large files. Consider the addition of a USB 2.0 card (or an upgrade to a new computer) if you only have USB 1.1 available.

Things To Consider

These factors generally apply to both internal and external hard drives, unless otherwise stated.

Speed

Hard drives are normally labelled as 7200RPM (or 5400 RPM for 2.5" laptop drives). This indicates that the disc inside the hard drive on which the data is 'written' spins at 7200 revolutions per minute. Faster drives that offer better performance from increased RPM are available at significant extra cost. Such drives are only beneficial to performance users such as gamers or video editors.

Access Time

Some hard drives will have their Access Time (also Seek Time) labelled. This is an indication of how quickly the hard drive can locate and read stored data. This is measured in milliseconds, and lower values are preferable.

Buffer (Cache)

This is temporary 'memory' that the drive uses to buffer information that is being written to or read from the hard drive (measured in Megabytes). The higher this value is, the better. Most hard drives have buffers of 2MB to 16MB; the latter being preferable.

Brand

Hard drives from different manufacturers have varying reputations for reliability and performance. If in doubt, it is generally preferable to go with well-known makers like Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi and Maxtor. Always check online reviews of hard drives you are considering, and you should be able to avoid any that have questionable reliability.

Noise & Cooling

This applies mostly to external drives. Since these are often in small enclosures that restrict cooling, they sometimes have loud (and irritating) fans to keep the drives cool. This is most often a problem on cheaper external hard drives. More costly external hard drives either have very effective quiet fans, or are designed to use passive cooling (no fan at all). Again, check reviews of the hard drives you are considering as this factor is often mentioned prominently.

Warranty

Warranties vary between manufacturers, so it is worth checking how long your hard drive will be covered. Some will offer up to 5 year warranties - others only a year. Bare in mind that the typical life expectancy of a hard drive is around 5 to 10 years, depending on use and quality.

What do I need the extra storage for?

If the extra space is for office work then a small 80-120GB hard drive will be sufficient. If you want to store music on there as well then a larger hard drive up to 250GB would be about right. If you want to store video and or games on there then we recommend the larger hard drives in our range such as the 400GB or 500GB varieties.

If you do not have the technical ability and experience to upgrade your machine, we strongly recommend you take it to a professional for any new hardware installations. Feel free to give us a call on 01274 471204 if you would like any advice on what you’re buying/fitting.